"I’m not mad at him," said Rodriguez. "I actually respect him so much. I don’t know why he’s mad. Man, I appreciate you, I respect you so much I don’t know why you’re mad with me. I didn’t do nothing to you."

Of course, then "El Pantera" did THIS to Penn.

In the immediate aftermath of his lopsided win, however, it seems that Rodriguez was able to keep things civil with the former two-division champion. As he told MMAFighting:

“I talked to him after the fight and he said, ‘hey man, no disrespect, this is part of the game. I just said all that stuff because it’s part of the strategy, no disrespect.’ I told him, hey man, listen, I know it’s part of the strategy. We all do the same thing in different way, so I’m not mad at you, he’s not mad at me. I respect him even more right now, now that I’ve fought him. I know he’s a legend. He’s a powerful guy, and I’m pretty happy to have the victory tonight."